Congressman's wife gets 30 days in jail for tax conviction

The wife of Rep. John Tierney (D-Mass.) was sentenced to 30 days in jail Thursday after pleading guilty to helping her brother engage in tax fraud. 

Patricia Tierney, 59, pleaded guilty in October to four counts of helping her brother, fugitive Robert Eremian, prepare false federal tax returns.

Tierney will also serve two years of supervised release, with the first five months as house arrest, according to the Boston Globe. 

Tierney had agreed to a plea deal with prosecutors that would have required her to serve two years of probation with 90 days of home confinement. But U.S. District Judge William Young said he was not bound to obey the terms of the deal.

"There must be an actual sanction," Young said. Tierney will begin her jail term Feb. 28.

Charges against Eremian state that he moved his illegal gambling outlet to Antigua in the late 1990s and dubbed it Sports Offshore, which included a website and telephone line for his U.S. customers. He allegedly employed "agents" in the U.S. who helped recruit customers and collect gambling debts from them, funneling the money to Antigua.

Tierney's wife pleaded guilty to managing her brother's U.S. assets through a Bank of America account in Massachusetts. She was alleged to have kept detailed records of financial transactions related to the account and gave information to her brother's tax preparer that stated his income as commission from his job as a computer consultant. 

Under house arrest, Tierney will be allowed to leave her home for work, religious services, medical appointments and care for her mother, according to the Globe.

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